


9/10ths

by bowiesnippleantennae



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Succubus, succubus au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-01
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-21 11:23:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1548818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bowiesnippleantennae/pseuds/bowiesnippleantennae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John is no fool. He's been dealing with this bratty female for as long as he can remember. It probably hasn't been the length of his entire life, but he literally cannot remember anything before the first time she spoke his name. He rubs at the bridge of his nose. She was a headache, and one he had to deal with every moment of every day until he either complied with her inane wish or died. Both were dead ends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	9/10ths

"For the last time, I'm not going to do that!"

Vriska moans in defeat and floats over to his other side, wisps of black smoke following suit. 

"Why the Hell not?" She draws out the word 'not' like it's a long rope meant to lasso him in. John is no fool. He's been dealing with this bratty female for as long as he can remember. It probably hasn't been the length of his entire life, but he literally cannot remember anything before the first time she spoke his name. He rubs at the bridge of his nose. She was a headache, and one he had to deal with every moment of every day until he either complied with her inane wish or died. Both were dead ends. 

"I told you, you're just a figment of my imagination and I'm not going to sign some crumby, fake contract just so you can go stick your black slimey body onto some other poor idiot." John opens up a cupboard and pulls out a mug. She watches with bored eyes then flops on her back, groaning loudly. It was the daily tantrum.

"This is so ridiculous and you know it!" She jabs a ghostly black finger at him and he waves it away, dust scatters. "If I had my own body, ooooh, you would be so sorry, John Egbert. I would make you eat those words!" Empty threats, he's heard them all before. 

"Yeah, yeah." He sips his coffee and walks into the living room, plopping down on the couch and grabbing the remote. 

"You mortals are all the same, selfish and stubborn."

"That's why you love us so much."

Vriska goes silent and crosses her arms. This is not the life she asked for. She'd much rather be in the physical plane, giving anyone she wants nightmares and coaxing the weak willed into sinning. But, no. It just so happens that demons work this way. They are parasites that latch onto a soul at random and the only way to go on living, is to make a contract and once the contract is made, the power inside them grows and a delicious soul is the only true reward. She turns her head towards John and glowers. This is what she got. This dopey, buck-toothed moron with the most scotch-free conscious she has ever seen. His soul is bright and he's generally happy and not easily perturbed and she hates him. Yet, the challenge excites her and she finds herself, for the most part, okay with just trying to nudge him into going through with it. Sure, she could use dirty tricks if she absolutely had to, but...

His laughter cuts through her head like a knife and she hisses at him. He's watching his favorite TV, completely immune to her presence. That's another thing. He was pretty freaked for the first night of her arrival. After that, nothing. John Egbert had coped with her sharing a body with him in a matter of hours. 

"Ugh, do we really need to watch this? Let's do something else!" She floats in front of him and he tries to look around her. 

"What? Like bond?" He scoffs and tries flipping the channel. Vriska places a blackened hand on the remote and it sparks. He yelps and drops it. "Shit! What the Hell did you do that for?" 

"Pay attention to me!" She whines and smoke circles around him. John shoots her the most deadpan look he can muster. "If you're not going to make a contract with me then let's at least do something we can both enjoy!" He ponders this, then leans back. 

"Ok, shoot."

"Weeeell..." She sings, slithering up his body. The chills don't bother him as much as they used to but her movements and the fact that she has some ability to affect the physical world still make him feel uneasy. He gulps. "What is something you've always wanted to do but never allowed yourself?"

John glares. "You know everything about me. Stop with the playing dumb, it's not cute."

"Do you think I'm cute, John?" She bats her eyes up at him and he did think she was pretty, in a way like a snake is pretty. Like how primeval people thought gods were pretty, staring up into the skies in awe and fear. He tries scooting even more into the couch but there is no use getting away from her. There is no privacy, no secrets. 

After a moment of him not answering, Vriska gets annoyed and turns around in a huff. "You men are all the same!"

"And you would know all men, wouldn't you Vris?" He manages to say, and he surprises himself with being able to make it sound as sly as it did.. She cocks her head to the side and scoffs. 

"More than you know women!" Because the self-consciousness of being watched by a conniving demon at all hours of the night keeps the girls away. He doesn't allow himself to date. John doesn't want her watching and she knows. "Face it, Egtwerp. I'm the only thing you've got for the rest of your life... Buuuut," And she sings it in the way that he hates. "All you have to do is--"

John stands up, abruptly. He grabs his sweater and heads outside and Vriska can do nothing but be pulled along with his soul. She sighs. His moods swing like this, sometimes. She floats along behind him as he stuffs his hands deep into his pockets and glares down at the sidewalk. This goes on in silence until words come to Vriska's mouth and she has no way of stopping them.

"What does coldness feel like?"

John rolls his eyes. "The opposite of hotness." 

Vriska ponders this for a moment before floating up and lightly grabbing his shoulders. He shivers from the chills but otherwise ignores her. "But what does hotness feel like to you? It is just normal to me and I've seen you sweat and complain about heat so how is it uncomfortable?" 

John sighs. "I don't know how to explain it. Don't talk to me in public." He hisses. "People are going to think I'm crazy or something." 

Vriska moans dramatically, per usual, and tries to focus on the world around her and not the fact that she would like to just talk to him a bit without either one of them snapping at the other one. If they're going to spend this much time together, then maybe getting along everyone once in a while could make it bearable.

No. Vriska can't allow herself to think like that. The more he hates her, the more he'll want to end it and that means contract, contract, contraaaact! Or he'll just off himself. She could deal with that, too. Same destination, different journey. Still, it'd be a wasted soul, she thinks. 

By the time John's little walk is over with, he's actually talked up a girl from one of his lecture classes and by the time Vriska notices, he's giving this girl his address and inviting her over and she rages with jealousy. 

"Are you fucking mad?" She screeches at him. He whistles a tune and chops up more vegetables. If she could smell, she'd be more upset about missing out on this great food than having to share the house with another female for the night. John hopes it's for the night. 

"I'm just trying to be as normal as possible, given our living arrangements." 

Vriska seethes. "And that means bringing a female into our house and schmoozing her up when you should be working out the details to our contract!" Her voice rises and he just laughs it off. 

"You can piss and moan all you want, but you're not going to ruin this date for me." He jabs a finger at her and she flinches back before regaining her usual confidence and rage.

"I can't believe now, after all we've been through, you're going to try to get with girls!" She throws her hands in the air, exasperated. "Do you honestly think all those corny moves you see in porn are going to get you through this night?" 

John stills himself and flushes brightly. "I... I never said I was going to... t-to..."

"Oh, right so all of those fantasies dancing around in your head of her getting too tipsy to drive home and then you figuring you could cop a feel during one of your shitty movies mean you want to have a nice, innocent meal with a hot girl you just met off the streets earlier today. I wasn't conjured yesterday, John." 

His hands ball into tight fists and he glares up at her. "I'm going to ignore you for the rest of the night, Vriska. You can try all you like to get me to act weird and scare this girl away, but it's not going to work." 

"Determination doesn't suit you." She purrs but he only turns back to the counter and continues chopping. She watches for a moment before she gets bored. Things won't heat up until the woman comes over and that's when Vriska will use as much energy as she can to ruin this for John and isolate him even more than he already is. 

Vriska uses the time before John's visitor arrives to gather and focus energy. She thinks that John is probably taking this as a sign that she will behave herself. As if she wasn't a demon with no sense of regard to the human race. That will be his downfall. Vriska often thinks John underestimates her just because she can't control his body, she can't push him or scratch him or do more than fuck up his cable signal and give him goosebumps. That makes her hardly a threat and she hates it. She wants to scare him, she wants to make him do what she wants instead of this act of manipulation.

The doorbell rings and John smooths down his shirt and answers the door, all smiles and bright eyes. Vriska uses this opportunity to study the girl. She was blond and feminine and petite and she hated how John looked at her. He should be looking at Vriska like that! Vriska was all he deserved. She bubbles with jealousy as John serves dinner. She boils with envy as she compliments how good it tastes. She plans out her revenge as John suggests a movie and the girl happily complies. Vriska sees the daydreams in John's head as vividly as he thinks them up and it makes her demonic stomach flop in a way it's not accustomed to. 

When John and the girl stumble into his room, lips locked and hair messed, Vriska can do nothing but follow. Those are the rules and she curses the rules with everything she's got. She has come to the conclusion that sharing John is worse than putting up with him on a daily basis. She coldly wishes contracts meant she gets to stay with him, eternally. But that's now how it works. When he signs the contract, she automatically gets pushed behind the scenes and watches as his soul gets devoured. She'll be the one devouring it, but it won't be active. It's automatic. It's painful for both parties but she’s meant to like the pain.

Vriska has concluded that the pain will be two-fold. She won't want to see him suffer and it took some floozy he barely knows to make her realize this. 

Her shirt's off now, and he's rubbing her in ways Vriska wished she could feel. And whispering to her things she'd wish he'd admit to her out loud. Vriska knows she's what John wants. He's just using this girl to get to her. That's when Vriska snaps and all of that pent up energy finally has a outlet. She invades his mind as his eyes go half-lidded and suddenly, this blond beauty turns into the deadly demon he sees every day. And suddenly, he moves more vigorously. And suddenly, he's calling her name and needing her and wishing she wasn't this ghostly haunt but a real life person who could love him normally, and not possessively with only eating his soul in mind. 

If demons could cry, Vriska would be sobbing. 

The girl doesn't stay the night. She seems frazzled and Vriska and John both know it's because her name isn't Vriska. And she isn't a demon and John was making love to whoever the girl was and the chick knows she's in second place. Still, it was an emotional release for both of them and neither want to talk about it.

Vriska sees the change in John, though. How he looks at her with sad eyes when she talks to him. And how he will dismiss thoughts of hugging her because he felt her wanting to cry that night. And he knows just as much as she does, that a demon shouldn't be feeling emotions like romantic need when it comes to humans. Vriska sees that he sees her in a different light, and he's no longer scared.

"Are you going to call her again?" She asks offhandedly one dismal afternoon. John glances up at his succubus and then back down at his book. 

"I don't think so, why?"

Vriska shrugs, secretly pleased but also missing the experience. 

"If you plan on possessing her again, then I'm definitely not ever calling her back. So, deal with it." He says sternly and Vriska deflates, dramatically. She shrinks in size and tip toes on the armrest of the couch. John watches, absentmindedly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She hums. John snaps his book shut.

"Okay, we're going to talk about this. What the fuck did you do?"

Vriska looks up at him with doe eyes and says she still has no idea what he's talking about. She can't do anything worthwhile in the physical world.

"You're playing dumb again. I can see right through you."

"That's because I'm fucking invisible." She spits, coyly. Her tongue sticks out and she laughs as he swats right through her, wispy black smoke circles then reforms into her tiny figure.

"Vris. Just... Why would you do that to me? Like, I know you're a demon and you do mean shit all the time and you can't help it," She could, if she wanted to. "but you really ruined my last chance of actually living a normal, human life." 

"You were never meant to have a normal human life." She mocks and he swats at her, again. The black smoke wisps around and suddenly, she's his size and she has her legs crossed over his lap and her arms loosely draped around his neck. "Oh John... My beautifully doomed boy." She cooes and he hates how lovely her voice sounds, sometimes. "You know why I did it. And you also know that I know that you liked it."

"I did not."

She makes him remember his panted gasps as he calls out her name and he wishes it really were her on top of him and how he didn't care too much that the girl was offended, that she left in a huff, half dressed and knees shaking. 

"If it really were me, I wouldn't have left you."

"That's because you can't."

"Maybe I wouldn't have wanted to." 

John looks her in the eyes, really looks into them. She blinks once, says nothing and let's the meaning of those words soak in. 

"What are you..."

"John, you're my eight hundred and eighty-eighth soul."

"Are you serious." He deadpans and Vriska laughs like a wind chime, all echoey and ominous. 

"As the plague. And I'm starting to think that you're the lucky one. The one that will keep me satisfied for a long, long time. Give me a break from this horribly dull life of doing business with equally dull mortals and their tasteless souls." 

"What do you mean..." He cautiously whispers.

"I meaaaan..." She pronunciates slowly. "That I have realized that my existence isn't random and neither is yours. They don't exactly explain these things, you just have to figure them out. No one talks about it, but we all think about it and I am beyond sure that this," She motions between the two of them and he watches the smoke wisp back and forth. "It was luck." She licks the word 'luck' like it's sweet candy and he wishes, slightly, that he could feel that mouth. 

"what happens... if I sign the contract," He pauses to clarify. "Other than you devouring my soul once I die off?"

"I don't know. You live out the rest of your shortened life while I'm stuck in the backseat, just experiencing everything until it happens." She shrugs like it is no big deal at all. And it isn't to her. 

"What about afterwards." He ventures.

Vriska ponders this for a moment. What does happen after she eats his soul? She never sees what happens. As soon as she's done munching, she's hungry for more and suddenly she's latched onto a new victim and the process repeats itself. And sure, she's felt some remorse for certain men. Ones she wouldn't mind feeling for once. John was the icing on the cake, in that aspect. 

She smiles, serenely. "You know, I haven't the foggiest! Why don't you sign it and find out?" 

"What if I never see you again?"

"Well, I've never seen anyone else I've eaten." She states, matter-of-factly. 

"Doesn't that scare you?" Surely she feels something more for him. He can't be the only one.

"A little," She admits. "But that's life. Or... er, the lack thereof in my case." 

"Hm." He hums and he looks down at his lap. She shifts her legs and the goosebumps rise. "How long would I have until you eat up, you know, my soul?"

"Time is hard to understand once we're at that stage. But I've never eaten an old soul, before." 

He goes silent, the agitation rises and she can feel it as well. She braces for his explosion but he just lays his head back and groans, exasperated and 100% done with this life. This is what Vriska should be waiting for. 

"If I sign it... will you give me some time to say goodbye to you?" That takes her by surprise and she can't find the words to reply with. "I mean, I've been with you for this long and even though you've been a royal pain in my ass and literally my murderer, I just... I don't know..." Vriska blinks at him and feels his need and she can't tell the difference between her emotions and his, anymore. "I'll miss you." 

"I can wait." John snaps his gaze at her. "Yeah." She nods. "I can wait, until you are so completely sick of this that you don't care how you get rid of me! I can wait! I'm patient."

"But, why would you..."

"John, you're going to be delicious and filling and I've waited this long, haven't I?" That didn't seem like the answer he wanted, but he smiles anyway. Vriska knows it's only skin deep. 

"But you'd rather I just sign it now. Don't you?" 

She goes bashful and he knows the answer. 

"If I wait until I'm on my death bed. Then I'll literally only have you for the rest of my life, right?" 

"I've been nicer to you than anyone else, but every time you let a woman into your bed, I will make you think of me." She warns, darkly and he believes her. 

What if he was okay with that? The thought makes him glare down into her lap and she sees him thinking it and she gets a wicked smile. The laugh bubbles up her and soon, she’s clutching her stomach, head thrown back and legs kicking in the air. “Oh, man! You should see your face! Oh, so serious!” She sits up and brings her fingers to her mouth, covering up a sarcastic smile. “I don’t know whether to be pissed or aroused!” Her voice drops to a mocking tone as she tries to imitate him. John is not amused. “This hot demon babe wants to make me fantasize even more than I already do! I’m the most non-virgin virgin on the planet! Look at me and my buck ass teeth!” Her bottom lip tucks under her top teeth and she crosses her eyes. John has had enough and he stands up abruptly. She stops and watches him go before being pulled along. 

She has to admit, he does do a good job at ignoring her when he wants to, which is how he spends the rest of the week. Vriska drops into a cool silence, remembering how she’s done this before with stubborn humans who thought they could save their own souls from the inevitable. It will pass, eventually and the sooner it does, the better.


End file.
